SEATTLE (AP) - Despite record-setting deportations nationally, the number of immigrants removed from the Pacific Northwest has dropped to its lowest levels in five years.
New figures from the past fiscal year released by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement show that 7,607 people were deported from Washington, Oregon and Alaska - a slide of 22 percent from 2010.
Moreover, fiscal 2011's figures are a 30 percent drop from 2008 when more than 10,900 people were removed from the area.
The Northwest figures buck the national trend: ICE says Nearly 400,000 people were deported last fiscal year around the country, a record for the agency.
ICE says the drop in deportations is due to fewer transfers to the detention center in Tacoma, and because the office has seen an increase in non-detained immigration cases, in which those facing deportation are not incarcerated.
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